The governor of Michigan today defended last week’s bankruptcy filing by Detroit even as lawyers for his office moved to contest a ruling by a lower court judge that it violates the state constitution and must be withdrawn.

Out of America: For 20 years this newly bankrupt city, in the words of a Tamla tunesmith, has really got a hold on me. The recovery is already beginning

Bondholders and unions will see Detroit as a test-case for cash-strapped cities

Even in 1827, when the founding fathers of Detroit fumbled for a city motto, they knew it was destined to struggle.

As Detroit goes down what could be a painful path to resolve its debts, attention has turned to the city assets that might be sold off to raise much-needed funds, including the valuable paintings and other objects that are part of the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Home to some of the most celebrated music of the past sixty years, Motor City has filed for bankruptcy

City is crippled by debts of up to $20bn following decades of decline in the automotive industry

Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner was hit last year but Yemen branch has just announced death

Musician Jack White has played springtime Santa, paying a $142,000 back tax bill for Detroit's historic Masonic Temple. The move prevents a threatened auction of the famed venue where The Who and the Rolling Stones once played.

By-product of tar-sands refining pits struggling industrial city against billionaire brothers

Returning after eight years away, Texas shoot straight to the top of 2013's Unnecessary Albums chart with The Conversation. It's not that it's actively bad – that would be interesting, at least – but that it lacks impetus, panache and compulsion, just for starters. The title track is OK, in an ersatz country-soul way, and the country-pop of “Dry Your Eyes” works well too.

A Saudi Arabian man arrested in the US after a pressure cooker was discovered in his suitcase knew nothing about the device's use in the Boston Marathon bombings, his lawyer said.

At its peak in 1950, the city of Detroit housed nearly two million people; today, fewer than 750,000 live there.

When the Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. fell out with the hit songwriting triumvirate of Lamont Dozier and Brian and Eddie Holland at the end of 1967, he resolved not to have any more “back room superstars.” He pushed Deke Richards, the white guitarist and songwriter he had recruited the previous year during a trip to Los Angeles, to take a commanding role in helping Diana Ross & the Supremes return to the top of the US charts.